Stop TB In My Lifetime
Each year, World TB day is designed to build public awareness that tuberculosis today remains an epidemic in much of the world, causing the deaths of nearly one-and-a-half million people each year, mostly in developing countries.
It is commemorated across the globe on the 24th of March which is the date in 1882 when Dr. Robert Koch announced his discovery of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacillus that causes tuberculosis (TB).
What is Tuberculosis (TB)?
Tuberculosis, or TB, is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which most commonly affects the lungs.
How does it spread?
It is transmitted from person to person via droplets from the throat and lungs of people with TB germs. Other people get infected when they inhale these TB germs.
In healthy people, infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis often causes no symptoms, since the person's immune system acts to “wall off” the bacteria.
What are the symptoms of TB?
The following features raise the suspicion of TB:
- Cough lasting longer than 3 weeks
- Coughing out blood
- Feeling tired all the time
- Fever and night sweats
- Loss of weight
- Chest pain
Is there a cure for TB?
Tuberculosis is treatable with a 6-9 months course of anti-TB drugs. Medication has to be taken until for the germs are killed, even if the symptoms of disease go away and you start to feel better.
Incomplete TB treatment means that the TB germs in the body that survive continue to grow and multiply. But this time, the germs may develop resistance to the usual TB drugs. In such situations, a different set of drugs with more side effects must be taken for a longer period. The chance of cure is also considerably reduced.
What's more, the next person e.g. a family member, who gets infected, will have the same drug-resistant germs.
Prevention
TB is a preventable disease. People with TB should be treated before they develop active disease.
There are also measures you can take on your own to help protect yourself and others:
If you have active TB, you can help keep your family and friends from getting sick by:
- Complete the full course of your TB medications.
- TB bacteria have a chance to become resistant to most TB drugs if full course of TB treatment is stopped. The mutant TB strains become more deadly and difficult to treat.
- Go for regular testing.
- Skin testing is advised annually for those people whose immune system is weakened due to HIV or for those who have a substantially increased risk of exposure to the disease such as healthcare workers.
- Lead a healthy lifestyle.
- Keep your immune system healthy by adopting healthy eating habits, exercising regularly and having enough sleep
- Staying at home all the time especially the first two to three weeks of treatment.
- Covering your mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and wear a mask in the presence of other people during the first few weeks of treatment.
- Disposing properly the dirty tissue by sealing it in a bag and throwing it away.
Some TB Statistics
Global burden remains huge and significant challenges persist:
- in 2011, there were an estimated 8.7 million new cases of TB and 1.4 million people died from TB;
- over 95% of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Poor communities and vulnerable groups are most affected, but this airborne disease is a risk to all;
- TB is among the top three causes of death for women aged 15 to 44;
- there were an estimated 0.5 million cases and 64 000 deaths among children in 2011;
- there is slow progress in tackling multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB): with 60 000 patients enrolled in treatment by end 2011 – this is only one in five of the notified TB patients estimated to have MDR-TB;
- provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for TB patients known to be living with HIV needs to double to meet WHO’s recommendation that all TB patients living with HIV promptly receive ART; and
- the African and European regions are not on track to meet the target of halving deaths from TB between 1990 and 2015.
So... Help spread the message!!
- Cough lasting longer than 3 weeks
- Coughing out blood
- Feeling tired all the time
- Fever and night sweats
- Loss of weight
- Chest pain
- Complete the full course of your TB medications.
- TB bacteria have a chance to become resistant to most TB drugs if full course of TB treatment is stopped. The mutant TB strains become more deadly and difficult to treat.
- Go for regular testing.
- Skin testing is advised annually for those people whose immune system is weakened due to HIV or for those who have a substantially increased risk of exposure to the disease such as healthcare workers.
- Lead a healthy lifestyle.
- Keep your immune system healthy by adopting healthy eating habits, exercising regularly and having enough sleep
- Staying at home all the time especially the first two to three weeks of treatment.
- Covering your mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze and wear a mask in the presence of other people during the first few weeks of treatment.
- Disposing properly the dirty tissue by sealing it in a bag and throwing it away.
- in 2011, there were an estimated 8.7 million new cases of TB and 1.4 million people died from TB;
- over 95% of TB deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries. Poor communities and vulnerable groups are most affected, but this airborne disease is a risk to all;
- TB is among the top three causes of death for women aged 15 to 44;
- there were an estimated 0.5 million cases and 64 000 deaths among children in 2011;
- there is slow progress in tackling multi-drug resistant TB (MDR-TB): with 60 000 patients enrolled in treatment by end 2011 – this is only one in five of the notified TB patients estimated to have MDR-TB;
- provision of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for TB patients known to be living with HIV needs to double to meet WHO’s recommendation that all TB patients living with HIV promptly receive ART; and
- the African and European regions are not on track to meet the target of halving deaths from TB between 1990 and 2015.
Everyone has a role to play so that
one day ...
TB will be eliminated forever!
References:
- http://www.cdc.gov/tb/events/WorldTBDay/History.htm
- http://www.cdc.gov/tb/events/worldtbday/default.htm
- http://www.stoptb.org/events/world_tb_day/2013/
- http://www.who.int/topics/tuberculosis/en/index.html
- http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/annual/world_tb_day/en/index.html
- http://www.hpb.gov.sg/HOPPortal/dandc-article/586
